Captive Breeding & Release

Some endangered species struggle to re-establish healthy
populations in new areas, through habitat fragmentation, or physical
barriers such as roads and towns which prevent their population
spreading naturally. Captive Breeding and release programmes are one
method to overcome these problems. Wildwood is involved with
reintroduction schemes for a number of highly endangered species.

Hazel Dormouse

As a member of the National Dormouse Captive Breeders Group,
Wildwood breeds dormice for reintroduction to Middle England where the
dormouse is becoming extinct, through a mixture of habitat loss and
unsympathetic management. Southern England is a stronghold for this
species, but it is becoming increasingly rare elsewhere. It is a mammal
most specifically associated with coppice woodlands, but it will use
hedgerows, bracken stands and reedbeds.

Water Vole

The water vole is Britain's fastest disappearing mammal and
this catastrophic decline has been brought about by a combination of
poor habitat management, pollution and the introduction of North
American mink, a voracious water vole predator. Wildwood is working
with several conservation organizations and research institutions,
including the Environment Agency, People's Trust for Endangered
Species, WildCRU at Oxford University and the University of Greenwich,
to try to halt this decline, through captive breeding and reintroducing
the water vole to restored wetland habitats and developing research
programmes to benefit wild populations.

Red Squirrel

Red squirrels are declining towards extinction and Wildwood
Trust have joined forces with a number of organisations to help. Our
breeding programme has been very successful. The squirrel babies, once
grown up are being transported to the Welsh island of Anglesey to live
wild, helping form a buffer population and safeguard the species
against national extinction. Red squirrels went extinct in Kent in the
1960's.

Water Shrew

The water shrew probably Britain's least-studied mammal and
very little is known about its distribution or status. This means it is
very difficult to tell whether populations are threatened. Because it
feeds on water insects and invertebrates, it suffers from any
pollutants in the water that these have ingested.

Wildwood has successfully bred water shrews in captivity.
These animals have extremely high metabolisms and rarely live beyond a
year. Wildwood is working with the People's Trust for Endangered
Species to build a sufficient breeding group for future reintroduction
projects, to be undertaken in partnership with other conservation
agencies.

Harvest Mice

Once considerably more common in Britain than they are today,
harvest mice have suffered from habitat loss and the changes to
traditional farming practices in modern times.

Wildwood is helping the captive breeding and reintroduction
project for the harvest mouse in central England. One of the novel ways
of reintroducing harvest mice to the wild uses old tennis balls from
Wimbledon, which make very acceptable nests if planted on sticks in
dense vegetation with an entrance hole drilled in the side for this
tiny mouse to use.